An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The bat­tered body of an 85-year-old re­tired teacher, who was found in her home at Lime Boule­vard, San­ta Rosa Heights, yes­ter­day, sent shock­waves through the qui­et neigh­bour­hood.

As news of the grue­some dis­cov­ery of Hy­acinth Gard­ner spread, neigh­bours ex­pressed shock, hor­ror and anger over the bru­tal killing.

Gard­ner, a US res­i­dent, was said to have flown in­to T&T ear­li­er last month to con­tin­ue ren­o­va­tions on the house and par­tic­i­pate in Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

Gard­ner, who re­port­ed­ly lived alone, was last seen alive by a neigh­bour around 4.20 pm on Sun­day.

Gard­ner’s hus­band re­port­ed­ly lives in Diego Mar­tin.

As in­ves­ti­ga­tors scoured the scene in San­ta Rosa yes­ter­day, si­mul­ta­ne­ous in­ves­ti­ga­tions were car­ried out as law­men went to the scene at Waller­field where Gard­ner’s stolen car was found crashed in a ditch.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the scene yes­ter­day, ar­chi­tect George Ross stared in dis­be­lief as he con­tem­plat­ed the fate of Gard­ner. Ross drew up the de­sign plan for Gard­ner’s ren­o­va­tion project.

De­scrib­ing her as a good friend, Ross said he was first alert­ed some­thing was amiss af­ter his daugh­ter saw Gard­ner’s car in the ditch in Waller­field and in­formed him. He said he drove to her house and found po­lice there.

The video of Gard­ner’s car was post­ed on so­cial me­dia.

Ross said Gard­ner trav­elled fre­quent­ly be­tween T&T and the US and had bought the prop­er­ty which she had de­cid­ed to ren­o­vate.

“She’s a very nice per­son. She was a par­ty girl,” he said.

Pulling up a video of her at a re­cent par­ty, Ross said the crime sit­u­a­tion “was not nice”.

“The way things are right now, even the cam­eras not work­ing for your in­ter­est, be­cause you will see what hap­pened af­ter the fact, it is not a pro­tec­tion.”

Ross said Gard­ner some­times asked him to keep an eye on the prop­er­ty when she was out of the coun­try, as she feared bur­glars al­though she had se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras.

Guardian Me­dia learned it was on­ly on Fri­day that Gard­ner had work­men place two ad­di­tion­al rows of con­crete blocks atop the east­ern perime­ter wall of the prop­er­ty, as she was con­cerned about safe­ty.

“The neigh­bour­hood seemed to be safe. I didn’t ex­pect this kind of thing. This is a re­al shock to me…I can’t com­pre­hend it,” he added.

Sick and un­able to ven­ture out af­ter learn­ing of Gard­ner’s killing, one neigh­bour con­firmed, “She was a nice, friend­ly per­son.”

Wor­ried that his sis­ter was liv­ing close by and that she lived alone al­so, one man who de­clined to pro­vide his name said, “She ly­ing down since she heard the news, she couldn’t take it, as they were close.”

The sus­pects were be­lieved to have gained ac­cess to Gard­ner’s prop­er­ty from a neigh­bour’s yard.

It was not im­me­di­ate­ly known yes­ter­day what was tak­en dur­ing the home in­va­sion be­sides Gard­ner’s car.

Gard­ner’s body was re­port­ed­ly found by a work­man when he ar­rived yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing sev­er­al bur­glar­ies be­tween 1980 to present, an­oth­er fe­male res­i­dent said while the neigh­bour­hood was some­what safe, one had to take in­di­vid­ual re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and pre­cau­tions. She said she last spoke to Gard­ner last Wednes­day.

Guardian Me­dia was told Gard­ner em­ployed sev­er­al Venezue­lan work­men to car­ry out the ren­o­va­tions, and had de­cid­ed to fire them af­ter she ac­cused them of steal­ing from her.